A good friend of mine has been unemployed for over 18 months. He is 32 years old with a master’s degree from a respectable university and an impressive resume of non-profit charitable work, as well as international business experience. He is even fluent in two languages; English and Spanish. Yet he is just beginning to realize after countless job applications, with few interviews, that he is a dime-a-dozen in in America’s new paradigm of over-educated, over-qualified people who can’t find a job to sustain them.

In his tenacious quest, he joined a cooperative that provides office space with Internet and phone service, job training courses, and kinship for the unemployed. He even applied to the only entity that seemed to be openly hiring — government: The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, the CIA and, yes, the IRS too. He attended a high-level interview for a U.N. position that was set up by a very connected family friend. Apparently the U.N. hired someone with even more connections and qualifications.

It is probably a blessing that he never received call-backs from those federal agencies, but at the time it didn’t feel that way to him. In essence, he has used all of tools in the matrix to pursue employment, but to no avail. It seems the wheel no longer needs his cog.

My friend, like many others going through the same struggle, is finally beginning to see the system for what it is: a rigged game to create dependence. Dependence for employment, or dependence on government assistance. It is a system that makes the unemployed feel worthless and hopeless. Unfortunately, this horrible feeling may be a necessary phase of waking up to the nature of this prison.

As everyone already knows, the manufacturing jobs will never return to America in any measurable way, because the incentives have been sent offshore. Therefore, the only American job growth will take place in a Ponzi-style economy in non-productive sectors. Since America no longer produces anything, it seems that they must break things in order to create false economic “growth.” Consequently, they can’t implement any genuine solutions, because that would threaten even more jobs.

For instance, they can’t end the foreign wars, or the War on Drugs, because where would all of the soldiers, contractors, DEA agents, prison guards, court workers, and all their support staff find new employment? They can’t simplify the tax code because where would all the accountants, bookkeepers, tax attorneys, and accounting professors work? They can’t undo the Patriot Act because where would the millions of people who make up the surveillance-industrial complex work? They can’t clamp down on the exotic games at the Wall Street casino, or virtually no one would be left with a job.

This is the nature of the phony matrix we call the American Economy. Even if you’re “lucky” enough to have a position in the above-mentioned professions (and many other non-productive capacities), you must realize that your job depends on the system remaining broken. Indeed, many will fight to keep the broken system for their own self-interest. This was blatantly obvious when police organizations were one of the biggest contributors for the campaign to defeat Prop 19 to legalize marijuana in California.

Since most people subconsciously know that their daily tasks are fundamentally worthless, or at least replaceable, job insecurity is at an all-time high. It is the system’s mechanism to perpetuate the rule of self-preservation that has deliberate consequences. It creates an atmosphere where moral individuals will engage in immoral acts to preserve their livelihood. So, our survival instinct allows us to justify any moral or intellectual compromise. In turn, they’ve convinced us that it is the only way to survive; hence our “dog-eat-dog” world. It’s an evil trap and even the best-intentioned can fall prey to it.

The good news is that the system will eventually implode because it is built on an illusion, by fake money, and can only “produce” by destroying things through literal and figurative wars. It destroys people, property, freedom, and basic morality. The bad news is that while it crumbles the human suffering will get much worse before it gets better. The only way we can avoid or limit this suffering is by becoming aware and changing our approach to the matrix.

Back to my buddy. A lot of good his $100,000-plus education has done for him in this system. He is only now taking the initiative to create something productive for himself out of sheer necessity. Can you imagine the level of production he could have accomplished in eighteen months working on a personal project, side business, or learning new skills?

It seems that the times are ripe for the hopelessly unemployed to realize that the only person they can depend on to create labor is themselves. The wonderful thing is that you finally get to choose how you will deploy your precious time and effort. Sure, you may not make boatloads of money, or have health insurance right away, but some positive income can be achieved. And if you’re truly driven by passion, your labor becomes effortless and enjoyable and will ultimately result in whatever level of income you desire.

You may have to learn to forage for a while before you find the best income vehicle for your passions. Learning to appreciate incremental gains when they do come is also vital to success, as any gain is certainly better than wasting away as a blob in front of the TV, polishing your résumé , and circling want ads for the next 6 months.

There are countless ways to turn your passions into income by foraging. You can start a blog for free about topics you care deeply about; learning how to monetize it as your audience grows. You can treasure hunt for valuable relics at yard sales and shops and sell them online. You can grow, make, and sell homemade products to your local cooperative or farmers market. And why not organize a local co-op in your community if there isn’t one?

The point is: our belief, dedication, and complacency to a “system” that has been defined for us has led to a lost ability to forage and create. The key is taking the first step on our own and seeing where it leads.